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First Annual Bel Air National Chess Day Tournament

Three Great Events in One

Come to visit Bel Air for two days of chess and explore our town!
This is for players of all levels!  We have events for USChess Members, casual players, and a “Learn to Play Chess” class.
At the Bel Air Armory, 37 N Main St, Bel Air, MD 21014 on Oct 9 and 10.

Regiser HERE! at Eventbrite!

Learn to Play Chess: 

Saturday from 9:00 to 10:30:  A class for absolute beginners!  If you are curious on how to play chess, in one morning you will learn the rules and how to play.  Following the class, we will have practice session against fellow students.

A Tournament for Casual Players

Sunday Oct 10:  A great first tournament!  This is a four-round tournament (Swiss System), where players are not eliminated.  Registration is FREE with prizes to the top 3 finishers!  Time control is 30 minutes per player with 10 seconds added per move.

Schedule:

Sunday, Oct 10:
Registration 8:00 am – 8:45
Round 1, 9:00
Round 2, 10:20
Round 3, 1:20
Round 4, 2:40

Prizes:

• 1^st prize – complete chess case with board, pieces, and clock
• 2^nd prize – Chess Board and pieces
• 3^rd prize – Chess clock
• 4^th prize – Chess notation book
• 5^th prize – Chess strategy book (have not purchased this yet)

Rated Tournament for USChess Members

There are two sections over two days.  A 4 round Swiss System SS, G/90 + 10.  Prizes $925 based on 50 entries. Entry Fee: $25

Sections:

Open Section:  1^st $175; U2000 $150; U 1800 $150, U1600 $125 
U1400 Section:  1^st $125; U1200 $100; U1000 $75

Schedule:

Saturday Oct 9:  Registration; 8:00 – 8:45 am  Round 1, 9:00; Round 2, 2:00 pm
Sunday Oct 10:  Round 3, 8:00 am; Round 4, 1:00 pm. 

Please bring set, board, clock if possible.  While we have many board sets and clocks, this is a big event, and we may run a bit short.

For the Casual Players Tournament:

We may or may not use clocks based upon availability of equipment.  If a game runs a long, we may impose a clock to maintain the schedule.

We strongly urge all USChess players to play in the rated section.

July 21 2021
Speed Chess Night in a Cascade format!
From 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Rec Center in the Community Room
Those without vaccines need to wear a mask.
We hope you can make it.

Saturday!  April 24

We have our Over the Board, in person tournament!

We have prizes!  We will have a pair of trophies.  One for the overall winner and another for the reserve champ.  Players who have never been a USChess member qualify for the Reserve trophy.
Registration is from 9:00 to 9:15 on Saturday morning on the 24^th.

We will be at the

Community Room at the
Emmorton Recreation Center
2213 Old Emmorton Rd
Bel Air, MD 21015

This is a 4R SS (4 Round Swiss System) with G30+5 (Game in 30 minutes with a 5 second increment per move) time control.  

Schedule:  Round 1 (R1) 9:30; R2 10:40; R3 12:49; R4 1:50.

This is a club rated event.  We will use our club ratings for the pairings.  If you do not have a Club Rating, we will use another rating you may have.  If you do not have a rating, you can establish your club rating here.

FAQ:
If you don’t find the answer to your question below, please email me.

I have never played in a tournament before.  Is this a good place to start.
YES!  You will be hard pressed to find a better place to start playing in tournaments.

I’m a veteran tournament player.  Will this be a good tournament for me?
Are you kidding?  This is OTB play with no risk to you USChess rating.  There is no downside to this for you.

What if I lose a game?
This is a Swiss System tournament and as such players are not eliminated.

What if there are an odd number of players?
In the event of an odd number of players, one player receives a full point bye.  Players may only receive one bye like this for the tournament.

Will I need to wear a mask the whole time, even while playing?
Yes.

I might be late, can I play?
Yes, but if you arrive after the registration closes, you will receive a zero-point bye for any un-played rounds.

I have to leave early.  Is that okay?
Yes. But you need to let the Tournament Director know.  Again, you will receive a zero-point bye for any un-played rounds.

Do I need to be a member of the United States Chess Federation (USChess)?
No.  This is a club level event.  We will follow the USChess rules with a few minor exceptions.

Do I need to have an active Emmorton Rec Chess Club Membership?
No.  Due to COVID we have not accepted registrations for our 2020-21 season.  Let’s just get together and play some chess.

What about food?
There is no eating at the tournament site.  You can bring your own food and drink, but you may not eat at the site.  If you are looking for lunch, there are many good places nearby.  The Festival at Bel Air has a good variety.  There are many fast-food restaurants within a block or two.  And if you are looking for coffee, I suggest Coffee Coffee in the Festival at Bel Air.

We have scheduled a lunch break between rounds 2 and 3.

What do I need to bring?  
A mask and a pencil (or pen)!  We should have plenty of boards, sets and clocks.  If you want to bring your own equipment you may.  Remember that your equipment needs to meet USChess standards.  So, no matter how cool your Star Wars chess set is, you will probably not get to use it.

Will I need to write down my moves?
No.  This is one of the exceptions to USChess rules.

If you do not keep score (write down your moves), you will not be able to make a claim of a draw based on the 50-move rule, 3-fold repletion, or other claim that requires a valid score sheet.  This is another exception to the USChess rules.  The sole exception is if a Tournament Director is a witness.

National Chess Day Results...

We had a great time and some much needed OTB play  

Oct 11 - National Chess Day - Chess in the Park

We have ALL BEEN missing OTB play.  Here is an opportunity!  From 8:00 to 2:00 on Oct 11 we host a National Chess Day Tournament (okay so it's a day late).  During the FREE event, we plan to hold 4 rounds of G30 +5 time control chess.  IF we get enough participation, we will hold both a USCF Rated and non-rated section.  Prizes? We're working on that still.  

Where?  The Shucks Road Regional Park Pavilion.  This is an outdoor event in  public park.  We may have a bit more noise / interruption than usual.

Sets?  We should have plenty of sets, clocks etc.  

SAFETY:  To ensure everyone's safe,  We have these protocols

1. Everyone must wear a mask!  
2. Maintain Social Distancing - The facility is large enough to accommodate about 40 players BUT this means we need to limit participation.  SO.  Arrive early to ensure your spot.  Spectators must remain 6 feet away from players.
3. We will clean/sanitize equipment before the event and you will have the opportunity to clean the equipment between rounds
4. While food is not allowed at the board under normal circumstances, drinks (including water) will not be permitted at the board.  Personal food and drinks are permitted away from the board AND away from other people.  No sharing of any food or drinks. 

See you in ????

We simply cannot follow essential safety protocols and play over the board chess.  As a result we will delay the start of our club further. As of now, we do not know when we will be able to return to regular club meetings. When we know, I will update this page and send out an email to our email list and post on our Facebook page..

Follow this link if you want to be added to our email list..

In the meantime, keep playing, studying and try to stay sharp.  We will continue to post on Facebook from time to time.

Project 1500

Who wants to get their USCF rating above 1500?  Project 1500 aims to get our regular USCF ratings to above 1500.  This is a voluntary project and is in addition to our regular club activities.  We will…

• play through selected Grandmaster level games,
• work on endgames,
• work on tactics, and
• play in USCF rated events

We will use a separate mailing list for this and therefore you need to let me know if you want to be included.

Play through selected Grandmaster level games:

We will provide Grandmaster level games for review.  We start by reviewing 10 of these games every day.  For those who are NOT familiar with chess notation, more on this later.  This way chess notation becomes second nature.  Our first set is the 2017 and 2018 Sinquefield Cup games. 
We will provide these games in two formats. 

1. Online via a browser.  Here is the first link.  http://view.chessbase.com/cbreader/2020/3/8/Game808424515.html
2. Via a ChessBase file.  To read this file you will need a ChessBase product.  There is no need to purchase a ChessBase product.  Simply download the FREE ChessBase reader.  You can find the reader here.  https://en.chessbase.com/pages/download NOTE:  ChessBase makes very good chess product however
   1. they only run on Windows, and
   2. they are expensive.

This is why we have the web browser version.

Work on endgames

For the first week we will let some folks catch up.  You need to know these two basic concepts.

1. How to deliver checkmate with a King and Rook vs. a King  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtGVYnv91ps
2. How a lone King stops a pawn and King from promoting the pawn.  You can find a video on that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z52BN5uv1L8

Work on tactics

I suggest using ChessTempo.com for tactics training, at least to start. Sign up and get an account so you the website can adjust the problems to your level.  I suggest 10 tactics problems a day. 

Play in USCF rated events

First we need to get to slower chess.  Speed chess is fun, but it does not help your game.  G60 is the fasted we should play.  For scholastic players, this may be tough as many of the scholastic events are G25.  Even the MD Scholastic Championship for U1000 players is G45 d5.  While these are OK to start, once your regular rating gets over 1200, we need to play in slower events.  Besides, the better play is in the non-scholastic events. 
To play in USCF rated events you need to have an active USCF membership and be able to write chess notation.  In a future email, I will send details on chess notation.  SO if you need instruction on chess notation, let me know.
At the club we will still have plenty of G5 and G15 games.  The schedule at the club makes slower events less popular. 

What We Do

Rated Quick Chess -

Tournament Trips -

Thematic Nights -

Puzzles and Position Analysis -

We occasionally review interesting positions, difficult puzzles, and significant games.  

If you have any questions or want to be added to our email list, contact us at [email protected].